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Wo»ifan*s  Vtnoti  Missionartf  Society. 


HERE  are  two  little  Japanese  girls 
who,  every  year,  enjoy  the  Feast  of 
Dolls.  Do  you  know  them  ? No  ? 

Well,  then.  Ell  tell  you  about  Komme  and 
Lugi,  for  these  are  their  names.  If  they  lived 
in  America,  they  would  be  called  Little  Plum 
and  Cedar,  for  these  are  what  the  words  Komme 
and  Lugi  mean. 

The  Feast  of  Dolls  comes  once  a year, — on 
the  third  day  of  March.  It  is  the  greatest  day 
of  the  year  for  girls.  The  boys  do  not  care 
much  about  it,  because  their  great  day,  called 
the  Feast  of  Flags,  comes  on  the  day  of  May. 

Lugi  and  Komme  are  both  of  them  school- 
children  and  study  very  hard.  When  a holiday 
comes,  they  enjoy  it  very  much,  for  they  are 
glad  to  lay  down  their  books,  which  are  full  of 
curious  Japanese  and  Chinese  letters.  So,  last 
March,  on  the  day  before  the  Feast  of  Dolls, 


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they  washed  the  ink  off  their  hands,  hung  up 
their  copy-books,  and  laid  aside  their  cakes  of 
ink  and  ink-stones  with  more  than  usual  care. 
Japanese  children  rub  what  we  call  “India” 
ink  on  a stone,  and  write  with  this  altogether. 

After  coming  home  from  school,  they  had  an 
early  supper ; for  their  mothers  wanted  plenty 
of  time  to  arrange  the  dolls  and  toys  on  tables, 
and  to  do  this  requires  as  much  time  as  Santa 
Claus  requires  to  fill  stockings  or  to  trim  Christ- 
mas trees. 

So  the  two  sisters  were  soon  in  bed,  with  their 
heads  on  their  curious  little  pillows,  made  of  a 
piece  of  wood  with  a cushion  on  top  of  it. 
Their  mother  saw  that  they  were  safe  under  the 
covers,  and  then  said  : “ o yasumi  nasare,”  which 
means  “ rest  well,”  and  which  people  in  Japan 
say  instead  of  “ good-night,”  as  a bed-time  kiss. 

Finally  they  fell  asleep,  and  then  their  mother 
began  to  prepare  the  toys  and  the  dolls,  and  the 
dolls’  dinner  and  tea-service,  and  sweetmeats 
and  dainty  food  for  her  darlings  and  their  doll- 
friends. 

Nearly  every  large  house  in  Japan  has  a 


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smaller  house  beside  or  near  it,  which  is  fire- 
proof. In  this  storehouse  the  valuable  things 
are  kept.  The  servants  went  to  this  house  and 
brought  a great  many  boxes  into  the  largest 
room  of  the  dw^elling.  Then  Komme  and  Lugi’s 
mamma  and  papa  opened  the  boxes  and  arranged 
the  tables.  Eyerything  in  the  boxes  were  wwap- 
ped  up  in  silk.  They  were  kept  quite  busy  for 
three  hours.  Then  the  Japanese  mamma  and 
papa  went  to  bed. 

The  little  girls  rose  earlier  than  usual  the  next 
morning.  They  quickly  dressed,  putting  on 
their  best  robes  of  red  crape  and  curiously- 
figured  silk,  and  went  first  to  their  parents,  as 
Japanese  children  alw'ays  do,  and  wished  them 
“ good-morning.”  They  did  not  eat  much  break- 
fast, as  they  w^ere  too  eager  to  see  their  dolls. 

Now,  how'  many  dolls  did  these  little  girls 
have,  do  you  suppose?  It  was  a Feast  of  Dolls, 
you  must  remember  ! One  ? Two  ? Four  ? Five  ? 

Guess  again.  Ten?  More  than  ten;  you 
would  hardly  believe  it,  but  they  had  over  a 
hundred  dolls.  Japan  is,  above  all  others,  the 
land  for  dolls. 


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Some  of  them  were  two  hundred  years  old. 
Think  of  that  ! They  had  belonged  to  Komme’s 
great-grandmother’s  great-grandmother.  1 sup- 
pose you  would  have  called  them  Methusaleh’s 
daughters.  Their  faces  were  very  dark  with 
age  ; their  gilt  ornaments  were  all  tarnished  ; 
but,  strange  to  say,  their  dress  was  still  fashion- 
able in  Japan.  Fashions  do  not  change  there, 
every  few  months,  but  remain  just  the  same  for 
centuries.  Then  there  were  dolls  which  had 
belonged  to  Komme’s  grandmother  and  to  her 
mother,  and  it  was  like  a great  Thanksgiving 
party  at  home,  when  grandpa  and  papa  and 
mamma  and  all  the  children  meet  together. 

There  were  Mikados  and  Mikados’  wives,  and 
Tycoons  and  Tycoonesses,  and  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen of  the  Court,  boy-babies  and  girl-babies, 
and  young  Japanese  ladies  and  young  Japanese 
gentlemen.  All  were  dressed  in  a manner 
entirely  different  from  any  American  dolls.  The 
Mikado’s  wife  and  ladies  of  the  Court  wear  their 
hair  far  down  their  backs,  and  have  on  a kind 
of  loose  pantaloons  of  cherry  red  silk.  The 
Tycoon  had  on  a very  high  black  cap  perched 


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on  the  front  part  of  his  head,  and  he  and  his 
officers  and  men  always  wore  swords  in  their 
silk  girdles.  Indeed  it  looked  to  me,  when  I 
went  into  Komme’s  house,  as  if  all  the  different 
kind  of  Japanese  I had  ever  seen,  either  in  the 
palace  or  on  the  street,  had  suddenly  become 
small,  and  were  sitting  on  Komme’s  table. 

But  the  dolls  were  only  part  of  the  show. 
There  were  tables  to  eat  from,  and  to  play  games 
on.  Some  were  for  checkers  ; some  for  “ pro- 
verb ” cards.  As  for  the  dishes  and  cups  and 
bottles,  and  things  to  eat  out  of  and  with,  they 
were  too  many  to  count,  and  yet  they  were 
nearly  all  different  from  our  table-service.  Then 
there  were  dogs  and  cats  and  deer  and  wild 
boars,  fishes  and  lobsters,  all  made  to  play  with, 
and  very  pretty.  Then  there  were  tiny  racks 
and  “ horses  ” to  hang  clothes  upon,  and  on 
these  everything  belonging  to  a girl’s  or  a lady’s 
dress  was  hung.  Do  you  think  it  strange  that 
among  them  all  was  not  one  hat  or  bonnet,  one 
pair  of  boots,  or  one  frock  ? Japanese  ladies 
never  wear  any  of  these,  and  yet  they  have  very 
pretty  dresses,  and  look  very  neat,  and  dress  very 
becomingly. 


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All  children’s  playthings  are  only  tiny  copies 
of  what  their  parents  and  grown  folks  play  with — 
I mean  what  they  use.  So  I found  when  I went 
to  see  Komme's  father,  and  looked  in  upon  their 
fun,  that  everything  they  were  playing  with  was 
just  like  what  I saw  the  Japanese  fathers  and 
mothers  use.  They  did  not  have  any  railroads 
in  Japan  then  ; so  everybody  had  to  travel  in  a 
kago,  which  is  a kind  of  basket,  or  box,  carried 
by  men. 

Komme  and  Lugi  had  plenty  of  traveling- 
boxes  and  trunks,  made  of  sandal-wood  and 
camphor-wood,  and  several  handsome  kagos. 
They  played  taking  the  Mikado  to  Kioto,  and 
all  the  make-believe  lords  and  ladies  followed 
them.  When  they  arrived  in  Kioto,  they  were 
very  hungry,  and  all  sat  down  to  dinner. 

How  I wish  you  could  have  seen  that  dinner, — 
that  real  Feast  of  Dolls.  Each  table  was  only 
about  four  inches  square,  but  on  it  were  rice  and 
fish  and  ginger  and  radishes  and  beans  and  tea 
and  buckwheat  cakes.  I suppose  the  dolls  all 
enjoyed  it;  but  they  left  the  feast  uneaten.  Still, 
it  was  good  Japanese  food.  There  was  no  bread. 


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no  beef,  no  cheese,  no  pies,  no  milk,  no  coffee, 
for  the  Japanese  people  very  seldom  eat  or  drink 
these  things,  and  Japanese  dolls,  never. 

After  the  feast  they  made  some  of  the  dolls 
dance.  They  put  the  Mikado  on  his  throne,  and 
brought  up  the  Tycoon  and  all  the  lords  and 
gentlemen  to  bow  to  him.  They  made  each 
doll  bow  its  head  and  touch  the  floor  with  its 
forehead.  Then  they  made  the  ladies  play  on 
the  koto,  a kind  of  Japanese  harp.  Komme 
made  the  dolls  go  through  the  motions,  while 
Lugi  made  the  music. 

By  and  by  it  was  time  for  the  dolls  to  be  put 
to  bed,  and  then  their  curious  sleeping-coats 
were  put  on,  and  each  head  was  laid  on  its  pil- 
low. By  this  time  mamma  found  that  it  was 
nearly  time  for  her  darlings  to  go  to  sleep  also. 

The  Feast  of  Dolls  in  Japan  lasts  only  one 
day,  but  the  display  of  toys  is  kept  up  for  seve- 
ral days. 

But  now  I must  say  what  all  Japanese  boys 
and  girls  and  everybody  else  in  Japan  say  when 
they  part — sayonara." — William  E.  Griffis. 

— From  St.  Nicholas,  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Scribner  & Co. 


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Our  young  friends  will  enjoy  this  charming  sketch  the 
more,  for  the  special  interest  they  have  in  the  “ little 
daughters  of  Japan.”  The  Woman’s  Union  Missionary 
■Society  have  had  for  many  years  an  American  Mission 
Home  in  Yokohama,  Japan,  sustained  entirely  by  the 
mothers  and  daughters  of  America,  where  many  young 
Japanese  girls  have  heard  for  the  first  time  of  Jesus  the 
Children’s  Friend,  and  been  trained  for  useful  Christian 
lives.  This  Home  is  now  as  full  as  it  can  conveniently 
be,  and  twenty-five  of  the  younger  children  have  a smaller 
house  witliin  the  grounds  all  to  themselves.  A merry 
family  with  their  work  and  play  ! Every  day  brings  hap- 
piness. but  there  is  one  specially  happy  day  throughout 
the  Home,  and  that  is  Christm.AS,  when  the  tall  and 
shapely  “ Christmas  Tree  ” which  the  kind  teachers  always 
prepare,  is  hung  with  dolls  from  America,  dolls  dressed 
and  sent  out  by  members  of  our  Mission-Bands,  months 
in  advance,  to  be  thus  used  as  Chrismas  gifts  to  little 
friends  in  Japan  whose  faces  they  have  never  seen!  Beside 
the  dolls  we  may  be  sure  there  is  upon  the  “ Tree  ” some- 
thing sweet  to  eat  ! and  so  here  in  Japan  comes  a new 
festival  day,  another  “ feast  of  dolls,”  but  not  now  a 
heathen  festival  in  memory  of  the  spirits  of  men  and  wo- 
men, but  a Christian  holiday,  in  memory  of  Jesus,  the 
little  babe  of  Bethlehem,  over  whose  cradle  angels  sang 
“On  earth  peace,  good  will  to  man,” 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  WOMAN’S  UNION  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY, 

41  Bible  House,  New  York  City. 

Mrs.  Jacob  LeRoy,  Pres.  Mrs.  J.  E.  Johnson,  Treas. 

Miss  S.  D.  Doremus,  Cor,  See. 


